A Greek theologian from the end of the fifth century wrote several treatises and commentaries, which were widely circulated at his time in the East and West. Among his treatises is the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, which comments on the liturgy as it was prayed in his time in Antioch. This theologian is anonymous, but he wrote under the pseudonym of Dionysus the Areopagite. Here is an excerpt of his treatise:

"When these sacred hymns, with their summaries of holy truths, have prepared our spirits to be at one with what we shall shortly celebrate, when they have attuned us to the divine harmony and have brought us into accord not only with divine realities but with our individual selves and with others in such a way that we make up one homogeneous choir of sacred [persons], then whatever resumé and whatever opaque outline is offered by sacred chanting of the psalmody is expanded by the more numerous, more understandable images and proclamations in the sacred readings of the holy texts" (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 3.3.5)

What this means is that the psalmody, the hymns of our Holy Church, is a tool that can help prepare us to receive the ultimate gift, the Holy Body and Honored blood of Christ Himself. The hymns do this in two ways; first, by appealing to our emotions through their gentle melodies, they quiet the noise that exists in us and that oftentimes stands as a barrier between us and God. When one hears, or even better, chants one of the beautiful hymns of the Church with concentration, humility, and submission, we are in fact quieting everything else that is chaotic, disorderly, and disruptive in our souls in order to prepare the way for our spirits to shine through and meet Jesus Christ Himself on the altar.

Second, and more importantly, the hymns offer “summaries of holy truths”, or quick guides to the Faith, if you will. As Orthodox, we do not regard the Faith to stem only from the Bible, or even from some complex and sophisticated writings of Church Fathers, but also from the concise and brief, yet equally true, messages contained in our hymns. Are you unsure of what your Orthodoxy teaches about a certain issue related to the Faith, or to the main events in the life of Christ? Pay close attention to the hymns that we all have memorized since our childhood. When you have the hymns present in your mind, you will be in possession of the “summaries of holy truths”, which you can recall easily when needed to be a true witness to the Faith.

Once we have managed to silence our internal noise, and internalized the concise summaries of the Faith contained in the hymns, we become one with the “divine realities” expressed in the liturgy, as well as one with those around us, the rest of the members of the Body of Christ. The journey does not stop there, however, but continues to the full explanation of specific aspects of our Faith, as our Fathers have chosen to include in the readings of a given day (the Psalms, Gospel, and epistles). What we have already heard throughout the raising of incense and offertory in concise terms, we now get to hear fully explained and expanded in the Liturgy of the Word. Finally, the ultimate goal, and what sets us apart from simple Jewish worship, is the liturgy of the Faithful, where we get to receive Christ Himself in us.

I apologize for the length of my meditation. This excerpt from Pseudo-Dionysus surprised me as much as it may surprise you. I pray we can now see our hymns and liturgical tradition in a new light, as part of the Patristic and Church tradition of our Fathers, and strive to posses the hymns, and pray them with understanding and care.

Excerpt cited in:

Metzger, Marcel. (1997). History of the Liturgy: The major stages. Minnesota: The Liturgical Press.